By Kelly Roberts

January brings a ray of hope in the work of racial justice, as young and old have celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. for quite a while in our country.  Although the US has so many lessons and history and history of lessons yet to be learned, we find hope in the fact that all of us know just a little about this legendary civil rights leader and many of us have memories of taking time throughout our lives to commemorate his legacy.

As we celebrate MLK’s birthday once again this year, may we take time to read and reflect more deeply.  May we take the time to create a new tradition of celebrating his life and work—and the ways in which the spirit of his life’s work lives on today through our local and national racial justice leaders.  May we resolve to teach each child in our country better and more broadly on MLK’s life and on the history that we have yet to cement in our national conscience.

One way we at Greystone might begin is by reading a bit more about MLK.  A good place to start might be the short biography.com entry, linked here.  If you have the basics down, we invite you to read (or re-read) one of MLK’s essays, like “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,”  linked here (audio / text pdf).  Let us honor Martin Luther King, Jr. by continuing to learn about and reflect upon the tremendous impact he has had on our world.